I.
Sowing in Teaes.
1. The sower is represented as weeping. The language here ■s very strong. One commentator puts it in this form, "may indeed weep every step that he goes." It has also been rendered, " takes no step of his way without weeping." Dr. Thomson, the author of The Land and the Book, in giving an interpretation of the Psalmist's words, says : " I never saw people sowing in tears exactly, but have often known them to do it in fear and distress sufficient to draw them from any eye. In seasons of great scarcity, the poor peasants part in sorrow with every measure of precious seed cast into the ground. It. is like taking bread out of the mouths of their children ; and in such times many bitter tears are actually shed over it. The distress is actually so great that government is obliged to furnish seed, or none would be sown. Ibrahim Pasha did this more than once within my remem- brance."
In all of this there is much to make sowing sad work. Again, the extreme danger to which the sower was exposed made his labour one of sadness. Dr. Thomson tells us that the sower was often obliged to drop the plough and seize the sword. His fields were far from his home, and so near the lawless desert. As in
' W. M. Thackeray, Tlie History of Henry Esmond, Bk. ii. chap. vi.
PSALM cxxvi. 6 85
Job's day, when the oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them, the Sabeans came and took them all away, so often since fierce hordes from the deserts have swept down upon the peaceful husbandman, and robbed him of seed and implements, sparing only his life. In all of this there was much to make the work of sowing also a work of weeping. Again, the frequent fruitlessness of the labour made it sad toil. The laud had gone to weeds. The ground was fallow. It was no easy task to break up this stubborn soil. Their once fruitful land was barren, and its cultivation was a work of the utmost toil. Their implements were poor and inefficient, their oxen were small and weak, and their own skill was very unlike that of the farmer of modern days. For these and similar reasons the sowing of the seed might literally be called a work of weeping.
'''^ 2. It is a law of the spiritual life that through tribulation we enter into the joy of the Kingdom. God means us to reap in joy, but first we must sow in tears. See, for example, how this law meets us at the very threshold of the Christian life. Great though the blessedness to which Christ invites us is, the beginnings of His life in the soul come to us amid tears. Then for the first time we see the mystery of the cross; and what strikes us, in what we see, is the spectacle of a Saviour there for us. We see the wounds in His body, but, behind these, wounds in ourselves, for the healing of which He died. No one ever truly opens his eyes on these facts who does not weep. Sharp and into the very heart goes the pangs ; " It is I who have crucified the Lord!"
\ Contemplation of Christ's sufferings, combined with prayer, will do more than any other exercise to cause genuine sorrow for having offended the love of God. ... In following the scenes of the Passion, contemplate our Lord as the sin-bearer, and think of each insult, or indignity suffered by Him as representing to us the penalties due to our own offences. . . . Thus we come to feel the stirrings of real sorrow for having rejected God's love. Moved by that sorrow, we take our place beside Him in His Passion, endur- ing our small sufferings cheerfully, uniting our half-hearted penitence with His Divine, all-comprehensive sorrow, whereby it can be deepened, and strengthened, and purified.^
* Piehop Chandler, Ara Coeli.
86 SOWING IN TEARS, REAPING IN JOY
3, Then the thought of the shortcomings of our service is enough to moisten the driest eye. That in a sin-stricken world so much needs to be done is bad enough, but that we should so often leave undone the very little we can do, that we should let the ground around us lie fallow or run to weed, that we should permit the forces of sin to do their worst while we are content to do nothing at all, is infinitely worse. We must be stony-hearted indeed if such thoughts as these never cause a pang at our breast or a tear in our eye.
^ There is nothing more grateful in the service of Christ than spontaneity — nothing more welcome to Himself, nothing more welcome to His servants. To have some services offered, to know of some kind deed done, quite apart from any pressure or appeal or even suggestion — that is so like Jesus that it is a joy to think of it. We are so ready to wait till someone moves, instead of following unbidden the first impulse of our hearts; we are so inclined to act only under the spur or the whip ; we are so ready to criticize instead of helping, that willingness is a cardinal virtue indeed.^